"The Providence Postcard Project"

Brown University's Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium 

154 Angell St, Providence, RI   (view map)

Betsey Biggs came up with a nifty way to celebrate local culture and work the populace for the innumerable stories it holds. The Providence Postcard Project found the photographer shooting an array of locations around our capital city, turning them into postcards, and dropping them off at branches of local libraries. One thousand cards, 100 photos, 22 neighborhoods represented. Each card was stamped, offering those who choose to participate a chance to take it home and write a description of what the location meant to them. They were then mailed back with tales attached. Now the pieces are gathered for viewing in the lower lobby gallery of the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts on Brown University’s campus (154 Angell Street). I missed the chance to fill one out, but I’d have chosen “Where I-95 Used To Be” if, as it seems, it represents a plot of land that held the old Providence Viaduct in the ’60s. It was a quick way to get our family to my grandmother’s house for weekend gatherings, and it’s a road that guided to one particular holiday event where my brother cut a mincemeat pie with scissors and my uncle slapped him in the mouth for it. Some memories never leave the mind. “Cultural heritage is a palimpsest of recollections, associations, and stories,” Biggs says. “I have a particular interest in canonizing the personal, ephemeral, inconsequential stories that are often left out of heritage practices, and hope to create something beautiful out of these evanescent materials.” An opening soiree to meet the artist and share your own stories takes place on January 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm | More info is at urbanheritages.wordpress.com/providence/providence-projects/the-postcard-project